What's the formula to calculate wealth?

[Alzrius]

I'm creating some uber-epic characters (all of whom will have PC-level wealth), but I'm having a hard time figuring out how much gold they should all have. I've looked at the tables for PC wealth in the DMG (pg. 135 and 209) and while there's clearly a formula to figure out gp per level, I can't decipher what it is. Does anyone know?

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I do know that the wealth for epic level characters appears in the Epic Level Handbook. Unfortunately I am at work and the book is at home so I can't help you any more than that at the moment sorry. :\

Olaf the Stout

 

[Alzrius]

I do know that the wealth for epic level characters appears in the Epic Level Handbook. Unfortunately I am at work and the book is at home so I can't help you any more than that at the moment sorry. :\

It's in the DMG too, page 209, but it only goes up to level 40. I wasn't kidding when I said "uber-epic."

 

[Pinotage]

I think it goes up by a certain amount per level every few levels, but it's certainly not consistent and doesn't appear to follow any nice formula. By the looks of things beyond level 40 it should increase by 1.5M gp for two levels, followed by 1.7M for 2 levels, followed by 2M per 2 levels, etc. Or something like that. I don't think there's a fixed formula.

Pinotage

 

[Drowbane]

It's in the DMG too, page 209, but it only goes up to level 40. I wasn't kidding when I said "uber-epic."

Money doesn't matter anymore past lvl 40... Lvl 40 Joe Fighter should be able to hawk a loogie into the dirt and create a +20 sword by that point.

 

[phindar]

Out of curiosity, what's the GP worth of every magical item in, say, the MIC? About what level do you have to be to own "every item in the book"?

 

[skelso]

I saw this question a few days ago and it got me thinking. I got my degree in math and I'm a math teacher, so I really enjoy looking for patterns in things. I just spent a few hours looking through the DMG hoping to uncover a hidden pattern that would tie everything together nicely and let me write out (were I willing to crunch the numbers) an accurate table to any level. However, I discovered that the absence of a pattern carries right through to every facet of the wealth and treasure system. Nothing is consistent, even within itself. It almost seems as though WoTC hired an intern from a temp agency to write their wealth and treasure tables. The worst part is, if you played a character and that character received exactly average amounts of wealth based on the treasure tables, the amount of treasure that PC would have would IN NO WAY resemble the amount of wealth the wealth tables say you're supposed to start with by level.

All that being said, there is a very basic pattern that runs from levels 32 to 40, I continued that pattern out to level 60 and built a wealth table based on that. Keep in mind that this table is in no way official. It couldn't possibly be because the actual table doesn't stick to a pattern for more than a few levels, but it least it gets you in the ball park of where the table would likely have you.

Level Wealth
40 13600000
41 15100000
42 16600000
43 18300000
44 20000000
45 21900000
46 23800000
47 25900000
48 28200000
49 30500000
50 32800000
51 35300000
52 37800000
53 40500000
54 43400000
55 46300000
56 49400000
57 52500000
58 55600000
59 58900000
60 62200000

 

[Alzrius]

Skelso, thanks for looking at the tables and confirming that there really is no pattern. The part about the wealth tables not matching the treasure tables at all is a bit surprising, and a bit disheartening. I'm much more surprised that there really is no pattern on the wealth by level tables, however. It seems like it'd be more work not to have one.

Your table, at least, has a clear distinction in what it increases by every so often. While I can break down the pattern pretty clearly (increasing by 1,500,000 gp in the beginning, and then having the increase raised by 200,000 gp every other level), what's the mathematical formula to delineate that? I ask because the characters I'm looking into making are ridiculously high level (like, having an ECL of well over a hundred - I'm using the rules from the Immortal's Handbook: Ascension), and that'd be really helpful to just have a formula to plug the numbers into.

I appreciate the work though. It's things like this that showcase how, when the rules fail, the community prevails.

 

[skelso]

I'd like to do that for you, but there are a couple of problems.

The first one is that the formula would use a "∑" and so you couldn't just plug numbers into it and use a standard calculator to figure it out. There are high-end calculators and computer software out there that could run that formula for you, but if you don't already own any of that, I doubt it would be worth it to you.

The second problem is that by the time my formula got you to the 100+ levels it would be so far from where real PCs would actually be had they leveled up to there on their own that you might as well pull numbers from the air.

I could probably try to research and write a log function that would more closely approximate the given wealth table (which by the way almost certainly contains typos in addition to being mathematically unsound), but I think I'd be pulling out old college textbooks to remind me how to do that.

Sometimes the simplest solution is the best. Make yourself a line chart. I recommend a big sheet of grid paper. One of those three foot tall jobs with one inch squares on it that are good for drawing dungeons on. Number along the bottom from level 1 to level 200 (or wherever you're going) and make sure they are evenly spaced, not bunched together anywhere. Along the right side, number from 1000gp up to about 2 trillion gold (that's where I'd roughly estimate a 200th level character would be.) Then start graphing and connecting the dots. I wouldn't use my table, just graph from 1 to 40, then estimate a continuing curve on to wherever you're going. That would be about as accurate as anything else we could do.

 

[domino]

Sometimes the simplest solution is the best. Make yourself a line chart. I recommend a big sheet of grid paper. One of those three foot tall jobs with one inch squares on it that are good for drawing dungeons on. Number along the bottom from level 1 to level 200 (or wherever you're going) and make sure they are evenly spaced, not bunched together anywhere. Along the right side, number from 1000gp up to about 2 trillion gold (that's where I'd roughly estimate a 200th level character would be.) Then start graphing and connecting the dots. I wouldn't use my table, just graph from 1 to 40, then estimate a continuing curve on to wherever you're going. That would be about as accurate as anything else we could do.

Rats. I was just going to come in and suggest that. It just seems the simplest way to do it.

I'd bet someone with SPSS or a similar statistical program could do something even more effective.